The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Girl Genius card game is a strategic "puzzle" game taken from the comic book series by Phil and Kaja Foglio. A world made up of mad scientists, intelligent animals, and racing dirigibles. The basic premise is that everything in the world is a cog in a giant machine (called "the Works"), and the players are mad scientists tinkering with the machine.

The card game is non-collectible. The games comes with 108 cards plus four "Lose a Turn" cards. You begin by placing 12 cards face-down onto the middle of the table thereby constructing a "board."

The board is made up of 4 rows of cards. The 2 rows closest to each player (in a two player game) contains 2 cards (where one of the two are flipped over before the game starts) while the 2 middle rows contain 4 cards each. One of the players shuffle the rest of the cards and deal out 5 cards to each player and places the rest of the deck on the table. Determine who goes first. On every turn, the player, whose turn it is, flips one face-down card face-up. Then the player spins one face up card 180 degrees and checks around the edges of the card to see if it matches color with its neighbors. If its edges match color with one of its neighbors, the card with the more colored symbol pops. When a card is popped, the player takes it off the table, follows the direction on that card, and places that card in his score pile after the card effect is completed. That player then replaces the card with a card from his hand and draws back up to five cards. The turn then proceeds to the next player. The object is to collect 100pts (each card is worth a certain amount of points shown on top left hand corner) in your score pile.

My friends and I had fun playing this card game while taking a break from an RPG or waiting for a movie to start. The illustrations, while average, are mostly funny. Some of the more memorable cards in the game are the Jaegermonsters which if you end up popping it, it goes to another player's score pile; the Mimmoths which if a player manages to pop it, gets all other Mimmoths from every other players' score pile; and Dr. Monahan's Diabolical Rat Stretching Engine which gives 10 extra points to every Pest in that player's score pile for that turn.

The length of time to play the game can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on how you win (some cards give an alternative winning situation).

The bad: None really except maybe the title of the game. My friends were hesitant to try the game because they thought it was a card game geared more towards the female.

In conclusion, it is a fun party game. There is strategy involved in what card you will replace a popped card with. Do you place a card that will clog that part of the board or do you place a card that will facilitate popping and hope the others won't touch that card? My friends and I have only played a few games of Girl Genius so we have found only these two strategies to use but as we get more familiar with the game, we will find more ways to use the cards more effectively. I gave the card game an average style because the illustrations are so-so but funny and the informations on the cards are easy to read. I gave a meaty substance because the background (the premise of the game) is good and there is lots of strategic depth in this card game. And YES it is fun especially when you have more than two players. I recommend you go try it out.

Girl Genius: The Works
Girl Genius: The Works Playtest Review by Oni no Won on 30/04/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A card game based on Phil Folglio's comic book series Product: Girl Genius: The Works Author: James Ernest and Phil Foglio Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: James Ernest Games and Studio Foglio Line: Cost: $12.99 Page count: n/a Year published: 4/01 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Oni no Won on 30/04/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction	Girl Genius card game is a strategic "puzzle" game taken from the comic book series by Phil and Kaja Foglio. A world made up of mad scientists, intelligent animals, and racing dirigibles. The basic premise is that everything in the world is a cog in a giant machine (called "the Works"), and the players are mad scientists tinkering with the machine. The card game is non-collectible. The games comes with 108 cards plus four "Lose a Turn" cards. You begin by placing 12 cards face-down onto the middle of the table thereby constructing a "board." The board is made up of 4 rows of cards. The 2 rows closest to each player (in a two player game) contains 2 cards (where one of the two are flipped over before the game starts) while the 2 middle rows contain 4 cards each. One of the players shuffle the rest of the cards and deal out 5 cards to each player and places the rest of the deck on the table. Determine who goes first. On every turn, the player, whose turn it is, flips one face-down card face-up. Then the player spins one face up card 180 degrees and checks around the edges of the card to see if it matches color with its neighbors. If its edges match color with one of its neighbors, the card with the more colored symbol pops. When a card is popped, the player takes it off the table, follows the direction on that card, and places that card in his score pile after the card effect is completed. That player then replaces the card with a card from his hand and draws back up to five cards. The turn then proceeds to the next player. The object is to collect 100pts (each card is worth a certain amount of points shown on top left hand corner) in your score pile. My friends and I had fun playing this card game while taking a break from an RPG or waiting for a movie to start. The illustrations, while average, are mostly funny. Some of the more memorable cards in the game are the Jaegermonsters which if you end up popping it, it goes to another player's score pile; the Mimmoths which if a player manages to pop it, gets all other Mimmoths from every other players' score pile; and Dr. Monahan's Diabolical Rat Stretching Engine which gives 10 extra points to every Pest in that player's score pile for that turn. The length of time to play the game can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on how you win (some cards give an alternative winning situation). The bad: None really except maybe the title of the game. My friends were hesitant to try the game because they thought it was a card game geared more towards the female. In conclusion, it is a fun party game. There is strategy involved in what card you will replace a popped card with. Do you place a card that will clog that part of the board or do you place a card that will facilitate popping and hope the others won't touch that card? My friends and I have only played a few games of Girl Genius so we have found only these two strategies to use but as we get more familiar with the game, we will find more ways to use the cards more effectively. I gave the card game an average style because the illustrations are so-so but funny and the informations on the cards are easy to read. I gave a meaty substance because the background (the premise of the game) is good and there is lots of strategic depth in this card game. And YES it is fun especially when you have more than two players. I recommend you go try it out.

Girl Genius: The Works